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ANC to discipline youth leader

David Smith

JOHANNESBURG: A firebrand youth leader in South Africa who racially abused a BBC journalist and praised Zimbabwe's President, Robert Mugabe, faces disciplinary action.

Sanctions against Julius Malema, the president of the youth wing of the governing African National Congress, will now be considered by the party's disciplinary committee.

The ANC has ''preferred charges'', it said in a statement, but the deputy secretary-general, Thandi Modise, added that these had not yet been formulated and refused to give a timetable.

''It is an internal matter,'' Ms Modise said. ''To pronounce on the charges would be very premature. The allegations are put, there is a consideration made. There is a submission on the table and that is it.''

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Mr Malema branded the BBC journalist Jonah Fisher a ''bastard'' and ''bloody agent'', accusing him of a ''white tendency'' at a recent press conference. He gave the youth league's backing to ZANU-PF, the party of Mr Mugabe, and poured scorn on its political rivals, despite South Africa's position of neutrality on Zimbabwe.

Mr Malema's call for the nationalisation of mines has threatened to worry investors. He also continued to sing a protest song containing the words ''shoot the Boer'', despite a court ban.

President Jacob Zuma took the unusual step of publicly rebuking Mr Malema for his behaviour. Political commentators and newspapers have suggested that if Mr Zuma now backs down and fails to discipline his protege, it will be a capitulation that will destroy his credibility.

But Ms Modise insisted: ''Will this whole thing around the youth league and its president make Jacob Zuma look like a weak president? That's something we don't understand. We believe in a collective leadership.

''We don't believe that when the youth league goes out there and puts its voice among the many voices of South Africa - sometimes very shrill, sometimes in a manner we don't even agree with - that you must say, 'shut up because you put that matter out there, you'll make the president weak.'''

Ms Modise's press conference followed an official meeting during which the youth league made a submission to the party's top six officials.

Ms Modise apologised to BBC journalists for the way Mr Malema treated their colleague, and said Mr Malema had also made clear he was sorry.